China's Climate of Repression

With secret trials and lengthy prison sentences imposed on human rights lawyers after forced and humiliating "confessions," the abduction of Hong Kong booksellers under circumstances that remain obscure, and new legislation that sharply restricts the work of independent organizations, the climate of repression in China is clearly sharpening.

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A newly adopted law in China gives police unprecedented power to restrict the work of foreign groups in the country, Human Rights Watch said today. The law will also limit domestic groups' ability to obtain foreign and work with foreign organizations.

The National People's Congress passed the draconian Law on the Management of Foreign Non-Government Organizations Activities in China (the NGO Law) on April 28, 2016, and will come into force on January 1, 2017.

"Beijing hardly needs more ammunition to crack down on civil society groups," said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch. "The NGO Law is like many others of the Xi Jinping era: ever-stronger tools to legalize China's human rights abuses."